What causes 'noisy' DVD tracking?

[Robert Macy]

This is the cheapest DVD player on the market, from Samsung, under the
label GO Video

Some DVD's it sounds like gravel grinding away. Often louder than the
soundtrack. Sometimes no noise, sometimes awful.

Question:
What is this sound? stepper motor trying to track? or what?
plus, as with most noises, does this mean the life of the unit is
being shortened?

Robert

 

[William Sommerwerck]

Is the disk actually playing correctly? It's possible to misload them and
get some odd noises.

 

[Arfa Daily]

This is the cheapest DVD player on the market, from Samsung, under the
label GO Video

Some DVD's it sounds like gravel grinding away. Often louder than the
soundtrack. Sometimes no noise, sometimes awful.

Question:
What is this sound? stepper motor trying to track? or what?
plus, as with most noises, does this mean the life of the unit is
being shortened?

Robert

Usually, it is the lens suspension 'singing' that kicks up tracking noise.
The focus and tracking motors are just coils that operate in a magnetic
field to move the lens up and down (focus) and side to side (tracking) and
are thus like a tiny 'loudspeaker'. If the lens is being driven by a
'scruffy' tracking or focus signal, the usual result is the audible whistle
/ hiss / grinding noise, which can be quite loud, but I would stop short of
saying that I have ever heard it louder than the soundtrack, except where it
is just quiet dialogue. The normal cause of a scruffy signal, is a marked,
scuffed or scratched disc, but there are some automatic servo gain control
faults that can cause similar symptoms. Have you checked any discs that are
affected to make sure that they are clean / undamaged ? Are the same discs
always affected in the same way ? When doing it, are they playing 'normally'
in terms of picture and sound ?

It is also possible to get loading problems which can cause a disc to
mechanically drag on the edge of the tray, and also to get partially
collapsed deck suspension rubbers or springs, which can cause intermittent
mechanical drag issues. Because DVD discs rotate at such high speed, even a
slight drag makes a lot of noise, but will often allow the disc to play
normally. If you can catch it doing it, and whip the lid off to take a look,
it should be obvious if it is a mechanical issue, unless it's one of those
machines that uses a computer-style drive, that's fully covered in ...

Arfa

 

[Robert Macy]

Usually, it is the lens suspension 'singing' that kicks up tracking noise..
The focus and tracking motors are just coils that operate in a magnetic
field to move the lens up and down (focus) and side to side (tracking) and
are thus like a tiny 'loudspeaker'. If the lens is being driven by a
'scruffy' tracking or focus signal, the usual result is the audible whistle
/ hiss / grinding noise, which can be quite loud, but I would stop short of
saying that I have ever heard it louder than the soundtrack, except whereit
is just quiet dialogue. The normal cause of a scruffy signal, is a marked,
scuffed or scratched disc, but there are some automatic servo gain control
faults that can cause similar symptoms. Have you checked any discs that are
affected to make sure that they are clean / undamaged ? Are the same discs
always affected in the same way ? When doing it, are they playing 'normally'
in terms of picture and sound ?

It is also possible to get loading problems which can cause a disc to
mechanically drag on the edge of the tray, and also to get partially
collapsed deck suspension rubbers or springs, which can cause intermittent
mechanical drag issues. Because DVD discs rotate at such high speed, evena
slight drag makes a lot of noise, but will often allow the disc to play
normally. If you can catch it doing it, and whip the lid off to take a look,
it should be obvious if it is a mechanical issue, unless it's one of those
machines that uses a computer-style drive, that's fully covered in ...

Arfa

Thank you for your detailed reply.

It is a NEW never previously viewed DVD. It plays normally. But, I
never verified proper loading. It has been ejected and reinserted
with little change. I don't think I can get the lid off this unit
easily.

From your description it would seem possible that the tracking on this
machine is set in one operational norm and the tracking for 'general'
DVD is somewhere else. So that when this machine plays such a
standard disc the machine complains. Makes sense.

I guess the solution is to put the machnie in a box, in a cupboard,
under a blanket. Except the remote then has difficulty.

Robert

 

[Arfa Daily]

Usually, it is the lens suspension 'singing' that kicks up tracking noise.
The focus and tracking motors are just coils that operate in a magnetic
field to move the lens up and down (focus) and side to side (tracking) and
are thus like a tiny 'loudspeaker'. If the lens is being driven by a
'scruffy' tracking or focus signal, the usual result is the audible
whistle
/ hiss / grinding noise, which can be quite loud, but I would stop short
of
saying that I have ever heard it louder than the soundtrack, except where
it
is just quiet dialogue. The normal cause of a scruffy signal, is a marked,
scuffed or scratched disc, but there are some automatic servo gain control
faults that can cause similar symptoms. Have you checked any discs that
are
affected to make sure that they are clean / undamaged ? Are the same discs
always affected in the same way ? When doing it, are they playing
'normally'
in terms of picture and sound ?

It is also possible to get loading problems which can cause a disc to
mechanically drag on the edge of the tray, and also to get partially
collapsed deck suspension rubbers or springs, which can cause intermittent
mechanical drag issues. Because DVD discs rotate at such high speed, even
a
slight drag makes a lot of noise, but will often allow the disc to play
normally. If you can catch it doing it, and whip the lid off to take a
look,
it should be obvious if it is a mechanical issue, unless it's one of those
machines that uses a computer-style drive, that's fully covered in ...

Arfa

Thank you for your detailed reply.

It is a NEW never previously viewed DVD. It plays normally. But, I
never verified proper loading. It has been ejected and reinserted
with little change. I don't think I can get the lid off this unit
easily.

From your description it would seem possible that the tracking on this
machine is set in one operational norm and the tracking for 'general'
DVD is somewhere else. So that when this machine plays such a
standard disc the machine complains. Makes sense.

I guess the solution is to put the machnie in a box, in a cupboard,
under a blanket. Except the remote then has difficulty.

Robert

A new disc doing it would seem to eliminate surface damage as the cause, and
the fact that any given disc which does it, continues to do it even after
multiple re-load attempts, would probably eliminate mechanical issues due to
misloading. Sometimes, you just never get to the bottom of what causes some
discs to misbehave in some machines - it's just one of those things. Another
slight possibility is that the boss in the centre of the turntable, might be
right at the top of its moulding tolerance. If you then get a disc which has
a hole right at the bottom of its size tolerance, you can get a situation
where the disc will not sit quite flat on the turntable. This can cause the
disc to run with a slight wobble which is enough to make it catch on the
tray, but still within the limits of what the focus servo can handle, so it
still plays ok.

Arfa

 

[Lynn]

This is the cheapest DVD player on the market, from Samsung, under the
label GO Video

Some DVD's it sounds like gravel grinding away.  Often louder than the
soundtrack.  Sometimes no noise, sometimes awful.

Question:
What is this sound?  stepper motor trying to track? or what?
plus, as with most noises, does this mean the life of the unit is
being shortened?

Robert

I think I know what that sound is. I got this DVD where some bitch
pulls out a gun on someone so some dude pulls out a chainsaw from the
back of his car and saw off the bitches arm and you see the arm fall
to the ground still holding the gat and the bitch tried to swing at
the chainsaw dude with half an arm and then she starts running away
and the chainsaw dude catches up with her and saws off half her leg
and after that he started sawing her pussy and started cutting up her
torso and then her chest up to her head and then the bitch was lying
on the ground in half. So, I think you might have been watching a
horror film with lots of chainsaws.

 

[Robert Macy]

I think I know what that sound is. I got this DVD where some bitch
pulls out a gun on someone so some dude pulls out a chainsaw from the
back of his car and saw off the bitches arm and you see the arm fall
to the ground still holding the gat and the bitch tried to swing at
the chainsaw dude with half an arm and then she starts running away
and the chainsaw dude catches up with her and saws off half her leg
and after that he started sawing her pussy and started cutting up her
torso and then her chest up to her head and then the bitch was lying
on the ground in half. So, I think you might have been watching a
horror film with lots of chainsaws.

great october 31 st story

any list of 'best' DVD drives around?

The ones that work well, reliably for long times?